Wednesday, December 27, 2006

"presents all gone?" - Darcy

We had a wonderful Christmas... all 3 days of it! We got to see Heather and Michael who are home from New Mexico. We also saw my personal favorite - Aunt Helen.... she's matthew's great aunt. (((I'm trying to convince her to move closer but she's like one of those nomads that just wander around from place to place :) ))) And we saw some other family that we only see once a year.

Christmas Eve we went to the Brock's and exchanged gifts with Matt's dads side of the family and later that night his mom's side of the family came over for their annual gathering.

Luckily we had already wrapped our presents so Christmas eve night we were able to relax... although I had to prepare for having my family over for Christmas. I volunteered to make mashed potatoe's (along with some other side items). I knew I better not make instant potatoes so I bought a bag of potatoes and peeled them all Christmas Eve. My poor hands were all sore afterwards. I later found out instead of peeling a 5 pound bag I had gotten a 10 pound bag! Needless to say we had plenty of mashed potatoes... my mom ended up making potatoe salad so it wouldn't all go to waste.

Christmas morning we woke up around 8:30am and opened presents. Everyone was happy with what Santa left for them. Over those three days the children loaded up on toys. And most people bought 2 of everything for the boys! Jessica got an ipod, Darcy got a talking Dora kitchen and the boys got little walkers they push around. Matthew got a new gun and I got a new duvet cover! We had a great christmas and we're looking forward to the new year!

Funny stuff: Darcy understood more than we thought she would. She would say Ho Ho Ho Merry Christmas. She also knew Santa put presents under the tree... to hear her say 'under the tree' was priceless. She opened presents for 3 straight days but once they were all gone she was sad. She'd walk around and say "presents all gone?"

The boys have gotten more active and we've played for several hours at a time in the floor with all their new stuff.

Jessica got some much needed 'under garmets' but when she opened them in front of Matthew I thought she was going to hide under the tree! She also got a volleyball net that she had never asked for but I thought it would be a good present... and it made me feel sooooo good when she was thrilled to get it!

We played a game with my family on Christmas day. We each thought of famous people and we put them all in a hat and we had to draw them out and try and get our team to guess who we were talking about by giving them clues. There was a one minute time limit to see how many your team could guess. For example one name you drew might be Tom Hanks and the clues you would give might be... He played Forrest Gumps... you could give as many clues as neccessary. Well my hubby is really smart and he loves history so some of the names he put in the hat were people the rest of us had never heard of... including Indian's that we couldn't pronounce! Matthew drew one of his own indian names and he was giving clues to my dad and brother in law... his clue was He created the Cherokee Alphabet... well we busted out laughing... and my dad said "yeah we all know that one!" I guess it was just fun to see who all ended up in the hat and what clues you gave to your team. I'm looking forward to playing that game again. I went to bed thinking of more names to add!!! LOL

I understand what you mean- but we don't teach our kids that Santa Died on a cross to save us from our sins and that he can give us eternal life. The idea behind santa is a giving heart- and that is a very Christian thing- its not the idea of you can't see him- its the idea of what he represents- Focus on the Family has some good things about the issue- Doctor Dobson is well respected in his views, but of course you have to do what is right for your family. My sister still believes at 9 years old. She's been asking a lot of questions the last two years, so she's close to figuring it out- but I think kids would be more upset that their parents didn't Try to bring the Christmas fun of santa into the home. Santa is talked about a few times a year- JESUS is or should be talked about every day of the year. If a child compares Jesus to Santa then it would be easy to tell them the difference.

Anyway- I am not sure what I will do. I've read a lot about it- this year- and listened to everyone's thoughts and views on it.

Some Christians just tell their kids that Santa does not visit their homes, because the Lord provides all their needs. Some tell their kids that Santa is a fake- well that's not true either.